The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2018

"Surviving and Thriving: Education in Times of Change"

In 2017, IAFOR education conferences in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America have brought together delegates from around the world to consider the theme of “Educating for Change” from a variety of different perspectives and approaches, taking full advantage of the international make-up of the attendees and the huge diversity of experiences. A recurring theme throughout the conferences was the reference to the future, be it immediate or longer term, as being uncertain; the natural resilience and optimism was counterbalanced by both apprehension; with hope also came fear.

In this period of great global political and economic instability, rising inequality and social unrest, the role of education within society has never been more important, but never more vulnerable. This brings us to our conference theme for 2018, which references these inherent vulnerabilities in both educational systems and the individual students and teachers, as well as the necessary resilience needed to not only survive, but also thrive.

How do we teachers, administrators and policymakers adopt and adapt to change outside our control? How do we nurture and encourage positive change, through the excitement of the imagination, innovation and creativity? How can technologies be better used to help us teach, and to help students learn? How do we sustain and manage change? How can we react positively to negative change? How can we, our institutions and our students survive and thrive in these times of change?

In conjunction with our Global Partners, we look forward to extending you a warm welcome in 2018.

Speakers

Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. For details of presentations and other programming, please click here.

Dr Bonny Norton

University of British Columbia, Canada

Dr Garold Murray

Okayama University, Japan

Professor Emerita Judy Noguchi

Kobe Gakuin University, Japan

Professor Ken Urano

Hokkai-Gakuen University, Japan

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As the world’s largest continent continues to develop, so do its educational and academic needs, and as the global economy recentres towards the Asia-Pacific region, the relevance and significance of IAFOR as an interdisciplinary think tank for both Asia and the West grows. IAFOR's Asian Conference Series, held in the cosmopolitan port city of Kobe, Japan, is the ideal forum in which to discuss emerging regional and global issues, and to keep up to date with the latest interdisciplinary research across a range of academic fields.

Why Join an IAFOR Conference?

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) welcomes academics from all over the world to our interdisciplinary conferences held in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Our events provide a unique international, intercultural and interdisciplinary environment in which to hear the latest world-class research and network with leading academics, professionals and practitioners.

Our conferences are meticulously planned under the direction of prominent academics to ensure that they offer programmes of the highest level, and are supported by some of the world’s leading academic institutions, including the University of London (UK), Virginia Tech (USA), Barcelona University (Spain), Waseda University (Japan), University of Sussex (UK), Medill School of Journalism (USA), Moscow State University (Russia) and The University of Tokyo, (Japan).

By facilitating dialogue between the world’s academics and thought leaders, IAFOR has become a pioneer in providing the research avenues and visionary development solutions that are necessary in our rapidly emerging globalised world. We welcome you to engage in this expanding global academic community of individuals and network of institutions, and look forward to seeing you at one of our future events.

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Presentation Guide

Whether you are a seasoned professional who has been presenting for many years, or a nervous first-timer, this guide includes useful tips on how to give an effective presentation.

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About ACLL2018

ACLL2018 Theme: "Surviving and Thriving: Education in Times of Change"

This conference, part of IAFOR’s global conference series on language learning and education, in its broadest sense brings together teachers, researchers and distinguished professors from around the world to share their insights. The goal is to broaden awareness of different contexts in the pursuit of synergies and solutions.

About IAFOR

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a research organisation, conference organiser and publisher dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange, principally through educational exchange and academic research.

Biography

Dr Bonny Norton, FRSC, is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. Her primary research interests are identity and language learning, critical literacy and international development. Recent publications include a 2017 special issue on language teacher identity (MLJ), a 2014 special issue on multilingual literacy in African communities (JMMD), and a 2013 second edition of Identity and Language Learning (Multilingual Matters). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Educational Research Association, she was the 2010 inaugural recipient of an AERA Senior Research Leadership Award, and in 2015 a co-recipient of the TESOL Distinguished Research Award.

Biography

Garold Murray is associate professor in the Centre for Liberal Arts and Language Education at Okayama University, Japan. He holds a PhD in language education from the University of British Columbia, Canada. In addition to having taught EFL courses in junior high school, high school, undergraduate, graduate, and teacher education programs, he established and managed two self-access centres in Japan – one of which was open to the general public. He has served as convener of the AILA Research Network on Learner Autonomy in Language Learning (2005-2011) and president of the Japan Association of Self-Access Language Learning (2005-2010). His research interests focus on learner autonomy, social learning spaces, imagination, and semiotics of place. He is editor of the book The Social Dimensions of Learner Autonomy (2014) and co-editor of the books Identity, Motivation, and Autonomy in Language Learning (2011); Social Spaces for Language Learning: Stories from the L-café (2016); and Space, Place and Autonomy in Language Learning (2018).

Biography

Judy Noguchi, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Kobe Gakuin University, where she served as the first Dean of the Faculty of Global Communication. She served as Vice-President of JACET (The Japan Association of College English Teachers) from 2015 to 2017 and as President of JACET Kansai Chapter from 2010 to 2015. She has been involved in ESP since the start of her career, teaching students in science, engineering, medicine and other disciplines. She has worked on the development of teaching methods and materials for ESP as well as the building of specialized corpora for science and engineering: PERC (Professional English Research Consortium), JECPRESE (The Japanese-English Corpus of Presentations in Science and Engineering), OnCAL (The Online Corpus of Academic Lectures). Her academic degrees are B.S./B.A. (Highest Honors, Chemistry, University of Hawaii); M.Ed. (TESOL, Temple University); Ph.D. (Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham).

Biography

Ken Urano is a professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, Hokkai-Gakuen University, in Sapporo, Japan, where he mainly teaches English to business students. He is also a visiting professor on the Graduate Program in Foreign Languages, Nagoya Gakuin University, where he supervises master’s students in English. His research interests include second language acquisition (SLA), especially acquisition of morphology and syntax, research methodology in SLA, task-based language teaching, English for specific purposes, and computer-assisted language learning.